Online auctions have put cars for sale in front of more people than ever before, but they can also come with pitfalls you likely wouldn’t encounter from the old-school local classifieds. Cars that don’t show up quite as nice as they looked online, shill bidding, AI-altered Cadillacs, that sort of stuff. But what about typos? Let’s say you accidentally type a wildly wrong number in the bid box online. What will happen? We just found out thanks to a recent Bring A Trailer auction.
Let’s set the scene: It’s May 10, and Bring A Trailer bidding has opened on a truly stunning Acura NSX. While not everyone’s a fan of the facelift model’s fixed headlights, this one stayed with the original owner all its life and racked up just 4,200 miles over the past 26 years. What’s more, it’s Rio Yellow Pearl over yellow leather. Yes, yellow leather. Finding another example anything like this is going to be tricky, as Acura only made six.
At first, it seems like smooth sailing. An opening bid of $42,000 quickly gets supplanted by a bid of $212,345. The seller posts more photos showing the paint protection film, the leather, and the exterior. A few days pass, and bidding jumps up to $236,000, then $237,000, then the real fun starts. From a high bid of $238,000 to one of $292,000 in nine minutes. The $293,000 mark arrives and the lot seems red hot, but then a problem arises.
The next bid hits and it’s a whopping $394,000, followed by a comment from the new top bidder: “Typo, $294,000”. Uh-oh. Cue the comments claiming this was an underhanded tactic.
One commenter wrote “Good ploy to stop the clock and have a private negotiation going. Gotta try that next time!” Another commented “Or the bidder did this on purpose to get a 1 on 1 with the seller to reach a price away from everyone else, its a 2 step process to bid.”
Now, Bring A Trailer does have a two-step confirmation process for bidding, but typos can still happen. Even though fraudulent bidding can be an issue, ‘2’ and ‘3’ are right next to each other on a keyboard, and they even have the same curve at the top. This seems like it’s likely an honest mistake, and Bring A Trailer saw it that way. However, instead of an immediate retraction, the auction closes. For about two days, it looked like a lapse of judgement led to a nigh-on $400,000 NSX. Then, on Thursday, Bring A Trailer posted an update in the comments.
Thanks for all the interest and comments on this great NSX. The car sold to bidder @turbotroy for $310,000 and we have updated the listing to reflect that. Here is a recap of what happened:
@turbotroy had advanced the bidding to $293k and @RR767 mistakenly bid $394k instead of his intended $294k bid. It was an honest mistake that our team should have caught in regulation, but we missed it and the auction ended at the erroneous $394k sale price. We then worked with all parties to find a fair resolution. We gave the seller the option to engage with both top bidders offline, or reopen the auction. Both bidders were courteous and diplomatic during these discussions, and ultimately the seller decided to move forward with the sale to @turbotroy.
Thanks to @The_Dude_Abides for bringing this great car to BaT and working through this unusual post-auction situation in a professional way.
Howard Swig
Head of Auctions
Right, so I see a few points of contention couple things here. Firstly, in the space between crossing the $290,000 mark and the unintentional $394,000 bid, there were actually three bidders. I probably wouldn’t have been happy if I was the third-place bidder and lost out because of an error and the way it was dealt with. Secondly, it’s generally quite common for auctions to be re-run if something’s obviously wrong. That should probably be the default action instead of an offline resolution because once an auction restarts, the playing field’s truly level.
At the same time, there likely aren’t many people looking to pay $310,000 for an Acura NSX. That’s a lot of money to be throwing around, and while the golden era NSX is a proper collector car now, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Some people like faster cars, some like older cars, it takes a specific sort of well-heeled buyer to splash the cash.
If this auction was any precedent, it seems like if you accidentally make an egregious but logical typo in a bid, Bring A Trailer can sort things out. It might not always be in the fairest way for everyone, but you likely won’t be left holding the entire bag. Great news if you’re a little sleep-deprived, or need a slightly bigger phone to suit your thumb size, or what have you.
Top graphic image: Bring A Trailer
Yellow paint? Hell yeah. Yellow interior? Eeennnh…nah.
I knew NSX had done a yellow interior at some point, but after seeing it, it’s properly nuts that conservative Honda actually put this in production for a few cars.
Also, as much as an Imola yellow NSX makes me swoon, it really needs the O.G. pop-up headlights.
Yeah this is why the Ebay system works best. you put in your max bid and it will incrementally bid for you. Granted it has it’s own problems of fraud on the sellers part that can try and fish for higher bids.
What I don’t like about eBay is the last minute rush- I wish that last minute bids extended the bidding by X minutes like other auction sites.
That being said- if you are looking for a niche item and use eBay’s system, overshooting the bid at the last minute usually keeps you in the winning seat.
im usually only on ebay because i’m looking for something ecenomical not because i’m looking for something particularly rare or in demand. i just put my max “this is worth $125 to me and not a penny more” bid and let the system do it’s work. although it is upsetting when say you have been winning for the last 4 days with an $80 bid only to be outbid by $1 just don’t engage at taht point… i guess I’m cynical and always suspecting thatch the actual seller who “won” the bid because I’ve known so many people who sold on ebay who drove up the bids using a 2nd account.
That yellow interior is properly crazy… didn’t even know that was ever a factory thing!
I was at a fundraiser for a large metropolitan zoo, and they had a silent auction. The usual stuff: vacations, jewelry, dinner out. But they also had paintings done by the animals. I was showing the diner next to me “haha look at this!” and my fat finger hit the bid button. There was no “are you sure?”. Nope. I bid $450 for a painting done by a rattlesnake. Like they coated his stomach in paint and had him slither across a canvas. I was hoping that I’d be outbid, but nope, I was the bozo that won.
My partner was furious at the time, but she has softened on it. It’s a hilarious story.
Shit, that’s my dream car. When I was in college it was my computer wallpaper. Yellow over yellow. Less than 4 BTC. You only live once.
Does anyone else remember when Bring A Trailer was more of a “bring a trailer because this junker’s going to require a lot of work, but it’s a diamond in the rough for the right person willing to do the work,” rather than “bring a trailer and make sure it’s climate-controlled and enclosed because if any of the poors set eyes on this one-of-six ultra-rare exotic car, it loses 30% of its value”? Because I recall it once being a cool place to trawl for project cars, not a place to the incredibly wealthy to launder money…
Barn Finds is the new old BaT.
Well you’ve ruined my night, possibly along with my wallet and marriage with my wife. Thanks for this!
Happy to be of service!
I remember. I also remember that they would not accept my ’69 Saab Sonett V4 that was an unfinished project that the PO had spent a documented 30K on. It just needed finishing and would have been a perfect fit for the old ethos of the place. I’m still a little salty about it.
But that said, were I to sell my unicorn RWD 6spd e91 BMW wagon, it would go on here or Cars & Bids and let the games begin.
Pepperidge Farms remembers.
My finger would definitely be shaking if I were bidding $294,000 on anything. Though I would also be DAMN sure to double check the amount I’d typed before clicking the Bid button.
I get that 100K is way over value, but I’m pretty sure the person spending 294K on a car wouldnt become insolvent dropping 394K. I’d have way more sympathy for someone accidently adding an extra 0 to a 20K bid. (Still, glad BaT was able to find a fairly fair resolution).
Read Bring a Trailer’s terms of service. lol
That’s a gorgeous car. I cannot imagine having that for so long and putting so few miles on it. I guess it paid off? But I would have enjoyed the hell of that thing every day
You could even argue it didn’t actually pay off at all. If the original owner put new NSX money into an S&P 500 index fund in 2005, today it’d be worth over $700k. In that view it cost them around $400k to own a car that they only drove a couple times a year. Basically $100 / mile. Pretty sure they could have rented one for a track day a few times a year and come out way ahead. Even cars that appreciate tend to be terrible investments, so the lesson is to at least drive and enjoy the damn thing!
Also keep in mind that storage, maintenance, and insurance aren’t free. So unless you’re making millions on the sale of an investment car, you’re almost always better off dumping the same amount of money into the S&P 500.
Or Lego.
Are there any cars that could be reasonably said to be investments? I don’t actually know of any that beat out simple investments of the original purchase price.
Lesson is: cars are for driving, not storing in hopes of a future payday.
I think even with massive foresight would better off with the S&P..
I mean if you knew Ferarri GTOs were going to auction for millions, and put one away for 40 years, you would still have been 100X (1000X??) better off investing that same money in Apple.
But stuff!!!
There is very little enjoyment to be had looking at a stack of stock certificates. I imagine that just having this in the garage all those years brought a rather priceless amount of pleasure to the dude. Not everything is about maximum returns.
As the saying goes, the rich are not like you and me, they have WAY more money. The amount this guy lost by not investing the price of this car is inevitably rounding error on his portfolio.
ooooooooooooooooooo yellow interior!!! So awesome, so 90s
The only thing better would be if the black interior trim was blue 😀
While I’d never spend that much even if I had it, I have to say that the Yellow on Yellow combination absolutely FUCKS.
Total wolf teats, man.
Can I use your wolf teats? Seems like the perfect compliment for this website.
I didn’t start it (see the comments) but yes, I highly encourage its continued usage.
*sigh* another Star Trek reference that David won’t get
Hell yeah! Needs “Fuckstone” tires…
Meh. Seems like a reasonable resolution even if this was a shady tactic by the buyer.
These auctions are little more than glorified classified ads. From what I have read about auctions that have gone wrong, it appears the worst BaT can do is ban someone from using their site. BaT might have lengthy terms and conditions written in intimidating legalese, but if they have greater recourse than a ban, they don’t appear to use it. If seller is cool with $310,000, I see nothing wrong here. I can understand why other bidders might be annoyed, but no one has really been wronged here. If you don’t like it, don’t use BaT.
As for the car, yellow interior is spectacular. I’m not sure I necessarily like it, but it is extremely unique and interesting – it is cool they offered that as an option. The worst thing I can say about a car is that it is forgettable. Love it or hate it, this interior is not forgettable.
A friend bought a car on BaT that was badly misrepresented – all sorts of bondo and shoddy repair work that didn’t show up in the photos. BaT was very apologetic and refunded a considerable amount of the auction price. I don’t know if they paid it or if the seller did, but they definitely had his back.
I haven’t bought anything off BaT myself (but I have been narrowly outbid a few times), but people I know that have bought or sold have always been happy with how the transactions went. I think BaT is a reputable site and I wouldn’t have a problem buying from them.
People do need to be aware that it is first and foremost a way to bring together buyers and sellers, though. While BaT does seem to make an effort to ensure listings are accurate, buyers still need to do their due diligence. Also, BaT’s goal is is to keep buyers and sellers happy; “fairness” really isn’t that important.
I agree. I generally think that re-running the auction is not a great resolution for the seller. You can’t always catch the same lightning-in-a-bottle moment and the seller can lose out on a lot of money for a minor reason. That happened to a someone on the Grassroots Motorsports forum who sold a car for a great price, had the winner back out, and then was unable to get close to that price again when BAT re-ran the auction. The way they handled the NSX was the best outcome for everyone.
Oh no rich people problems
The biggest surprise in this whole story is that an NSX (even a clean and rare one) is worth $300k.
That’ll get you an equally pristine 550 Maranello from the same era, with some cash left over.
Or 600 jeeps for Dave Tracy.
Yeah but that maintenance bill…
Yeah, it’s definitely going to cost more to change the oil on the Ferrari than the 600 Jeeps.
The feature of the 600 Jeeps is that you likely just need to top them up, rather than worrying about changing the oil.
As far as vintage Ferraris go, the 550 is reliable and doesn’t require engine out services. But yeah, it’s not a Honda product.
Buying one doesn’t preclude buying the other, if you’re dropping $300k on a 30 year old car, you’ve got disposable income.
It’s also a bit of an odd comparison. They’re vastly different cars. Front vs mid engined, V12 vs 6, Japanese vs Italian, sports car vs GT. ~2700lbs vs ~3700. I don’t think many folks are cross shopping the two.
The NSX also has the advantage that no one will mistake it for a Corvette from a distance.
That’s the idea though, they aren’t comparable. One is a significantly more desirable product.
The market says differently.
A bit surprised but not too surprised. I mean an Integra Type-R went for 200k a few years ago so surely the NSX is going to be more, especially a single-owner low-mile example of one of the final 3.2li cars with a 6-speed.
I remember when the better looking earlier ones were going for around $25k and I thought, eh, I don’t know if I like them that much.
The color combo isn’t my thing, but I wonder why the yellow is largely hidden when sitting in it. I’d rather have some yellow higher up and the carpet black (though with such low mileage, cleaning probably wasn’t much effort). At least have the door card inserts yellow, too—what, that would be too loud?
Bright colors high up in interiors create glare/reflection issues.
Right, I wouldn’t expect the dash, but the console and the door card inserts could be done if not also the door tops.
If I had been that 3rd party bidder bidding in the $300,000 Mark I’d breathe a sigh of relief not to be included on further bidding. It is a hell of a nice car but not $300,000
They could have got this very nice one today (also yellow) just for the erroneous jump in bid!
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1997-acura-nsx-t-28/
With almost equal jump on the mileage. Heck this NSX is at the mileage where you start dropping insurance coverage to save money.
Yeah I like that one better. The all-yellow interior is too much, as was the price.
I sold my car, a nice one, on Cars & Bids a few months ago. It was a TERRIBLE experience due to their incompetence. No one should ever use an auction site.
Do tell!
Here’s what I’ve posted previously. I’m still pretty pissed…
——-
Halfway thru my auction a brand new user posted a comment which was a lie, obviously designed to depress the bidding on the car. It was along the lines of “I know this car and it was in an accident and the axle was broken.” It was complete and total BS. C&B kept it up for hours without taking it down, refused to re-start the auction, refused to make it one of their highlighted auctions, refused to let me increase the reserve and refused to do ANYTHING to salvage the auction. It wouldn’t have cost them anything. Instead I got “Oh we still have lots of confidence your auction will turn out fine!!!!”. Total BS.
So not one of the people that bid BEFORE that comment bid again after and interest absolutely dried up. It was like hitting a brick wall. The auction came in UNDER the reserve I set (which they pressure you to keep low) and then THEY MADE UP THE DIFFERENCE so the sale would go through.
So I’ve never gone back there and I will never use it again and EVERYONE SHOULD BE AWARE THAT C&B is complete and total BS. End of rant
That’s a Doug Dickmuro move.
Oof – I feel for you. You should tell that story to anyone and everyone who will listen. It’s the only way to get them to change that behavior.
I was actually considering using C&B for a not-exotic, solid low-mile car I want to sell soon. What do you mean “they made up the difference”?
It’s how the process works on all auctions. You have to agree that if the final bid comes in under your reserve that they have the right, at their discretion, to make up the difference and complete the auction. My auction came in at $1000 below my reserve, it was sold to the high bidder, and a week or so later C&B sent me a check for $1000.
Got it, looks like they really wanted to show a transaction, I would hope the commission was significantly higher!
I considered it when I traded in my BRZ last year. What went wrong?
See above, thank you
Interesting. I sold my car on BaT recently, it was super smooth. Local specialty dealer offers maxed out at about $19k, and it sold for $28k. Totally worth it.
Dealers are always gonna lowball you. Buying from you at market value won’t make them any money.
On the one hand I agree BaT should have maybe reopened the bidding to make it fair for everybody but on the other hand I can’t even conceive of spending $300K on a car so this is all make-believe money anyways.
That’s a lot of bananas
That yellow leather is amazing. How ridiculously cool would it feel to step out of this, dressed in all black, before taking the arm of your supermodel husband/wife to walk up the red carpet to receive the Nobel Prize for Chemistry you received for your acting, nevermind the pile of Oscars, while George Clooney and Anne Hathaway try to squeeze in for a photo of you standing behind your birthday cake, because it’s your birthday after all and after passing vital bipartisan legislation to end homelessness and renew critical infrastructure – for public and private transit, not least among that – don’t you deserve a slice of cake?
Pretty cool, I bet. Pretty cool.
A banana cake, of course.
Yes, but my Husband and I would be wearing white/cream linen suits.
Lemon cake, please.
Colour matched yellow suits.
Matching banana costumes. Peanut butter jelly time.
There’s always money in the banana stand.
As you step out in your yellow suit, don your oversized yellow hat, and help your overly-clever monkey out from the passenger seat.
Damn, that’s classy.
It would be cooler if you’re dressed as Jim Carey from the Mask.
Lemon pound cake, for sure.
I’m sure purchased by Jesse Cole, Savannah Bananas